Florence-Lauderdale Public Library Digital Archive
Interview with Bill Gober
June 23, 2011
Florence, Alabama
Conducted by Clint Alley and Rhonda Haygood
Clip 4
Clint Alley: Now I've heard, a lot, a lot of veterans talk about the Chinese, they did a lot of sneak attacks and they attacked hospitals and things like that. Did you ever encounter any of that?
Bill Gober: Well, I didn't see them attack any hospitals because we didn't have any hospitals up there where we were at. Now they, they did attack at night, at sundown and sunrise. You could get ready, they were coming.
CA: Um.
BG: So you better, you better be ready when the sun come up or when the sun went down because something about the sun turned them off, somehow. Or on, whatever you want to call it.
CA: Yeah.
Rhonda Haygood: How did y'all manage to ever get any sleep or any rest?
BG: You didn't get none. You just—what I'm going to say now is a little comical. Even to use the restroom was a problem.
CA: Um-hm. Yeah.
BG: You had to have two or three guys around you and when you got two or three guys around you somebody's got to have a wise crack or something.
CA: Yeah.
BG: That was the humor part of it.
CA: Yeah.
BG: And, and then you was on guard constant. Just that three months, practically.
CA: Um.
BG: And when I come out, that's right after we got aboard ship. See when we got, when we got back to this area here, the ships was out here waiting on us. You can see the ships there. They were waiting on us there when we got there. And the first thing they done, ushered us out. And the ones that was frostbite, that was fixing to lose their hands and feet, they went to the hospital ship. The doctor checked them. They went to the hospital ship. When they woke up, they didn't have hands or feet. Us other guys that was still able to walk, we got aboard ship and they ushered us down through the shower. The first thing they done is went straight to the shower.
CA: Yeah.
BG: And they took all of our clothes we had on. We had six pairs of everything. We had everything we had to wear, we had it on. And they give us two bags, one black one and one white one and you put your personal effects in the white one, like your billfold and stuff. And you held onto it. The other one, you put all your clothes and everything in that black bag. And they said they carried up topside and threw it overboard. Then they sprayed us down with DDT. Made us stand there about twenty minutes. And then they would let us go through a shower. And that was the best thing that’s ever, to ever happen to you. Warm shower.
CA: Oh, me. And that was aboard a ship?
BG: Aboard ship.
CA: Um, my goodness, um.
BG: And then they ushered up to the chow hall and gave us a, I forget exactly what it was. They, it was some kind of warm soup or something and, and a cup of coffee.
CA: Hum.
BG: And that was the first warm, warm thing that we had had to eat for almost ninety days. And I was down to 117 pounds.
CA: How much did you weigh when you went in there?
BG: About 147, ―48, maybe 152, some, just depends. And that was after, right after that there―and then when we came through the shower this is what they issued us [Mr. Gober points to a photograph of himself in the clothes they issued him] and we put it on and we got a shave and a shower. And eventually, before we got back down to Masan, Masan here on this side right there, Masan, when we got aboard here we came all the way back here. And then we stayed there for R&R about three weeks. And then we had to come back over on this side and push the Chinese back to this DMZ zone here.
CA: Yeah, hum. So had they overrun the city of Seoul again?
BG: Oh yeah, they, that city passed hands, changed four times in six months. CA: Um.
BG: When they crossed the 38th here and captured the city of Seoul then we recaptured it. Then the Chinese recaptured it and then the Army recaptured it. In six months it changed hands four times. And see, we are for—, we are known as the “forgotten war”. Nobody knows much about it. And we go to the schools and talk to the schools. There's a group of us. And we're in the Graybeard this month. I'm in it; it shows, at a school, talking to the kids.
CA: Oh, yeah?
RH: How do the kids respond?
BG: Real good. They, they, the teachers are more surprised. They don't realize that the Korean War—see the causality list in that Korean War in three years is 54,000 deaths, 150 som—, 100 and something thousand wounded. There is still 8,142 missing.
CA: Hum. My goodness.
BG: And Laverne Tate's unit was on, on the right flank here, up here. There were 3500 of them and there was 370 of them survived. The rest of them is still over there.
CA: Um, goodness. How did y'all keep in ammunition while you were surrounded like that?
BG: Air dropping.
CA: Oh, okay. An air drop, then.
BG: They had to drop our Tootsie Rolls and everything.
CA: Yeah.
BG: And, and see, and they, they dropped those three-in-one rations. See, it, that's three-in-one, that means three meals in one package.
CA: Oh, okay.
BG: Breakfast, lunch and dinner.
CA: Um-hm.
BG: But everything froze but the crackers and the jam and stuff. See, in forty below zero, everything is froze.
CA: Um-hm.
BG: And you couldn't eat it. It was just hard as a brick. So, the only thing we could eat was the crackers, two crackers, and the jam and the fruit and the Tootsie Rolls. And a Hershey bar. That's what we lived on.
CA: I bet you got sick of all that didn't you?
BG: Well, it tasted pretty good, when you're hungry.

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Transcriptions

Florence-Lauderdale Public Library Digital Archive
Interview with Bill Gober
June 23, 2011
Florence, Alabama
Conducted by Clint Alley and Rhonda Haygood
Clip 4
Clint Alley: Now I've heard, a lot, a lot of veterans talk about the Chinese, they did a lot of sneak attacks and they attacked hospitals and things like that. Did you ever encounter any of that?
Bill Gober: Well, I didn't see them attack any hospitals because we didn't have any hospitals up there where we were at. Now they, they did attack at night, at sundown and sunrise. You could get ready, they were coming.
CA: Um.
BG: So you better, you better be ready when the sun come up or when the sun went down because something about the sun turned them off, somehow. Or on, whatever you want to call it.
CA: Yeah.
Rhonda Haygood: How did y'all manage to ever get any sleep or any rest?
BG: You didn't get none. You just—what I'm going to say now is a little comical. Even to use the restroom was a problem.
CA: Um-hm. Yeah.
BG: You had to have two or three guys around you and when you got two or three guys around you somebody's got to have a wise crack or something.
CA: Yeah.
BG: That was the humor part of it.
CA: Yeah.
BG: And, and then you was on guard constant. Just that three months, practically.
CA: Um.
BG: And when I come out, that's right after we got aboard ship. See when we got, when we got back to this area here, the ships was out here waiting on us. You can see the ships there. They were waiting on us there when we got there. And the first thing they done, ushered us out. And the ones that was frostbite, that was fixing to lose their hands and feet, they went to the hospital ship. The doctor checked them. They went to the hospital ship. When they woke up, they didn't have hands or feet. Us other guys that was still able to walk, we got aboard ship and they ushered us down through the shower. The first thing they done is went straight to the shower.
CA: Yeah.
BG: And they took all of our clothes we had on. We had six pairs of everything. We had everything we had to wear, we had it on. And they give us two bags, one black one and one white one and you put your personal effects in the white one, like your billfold and stuff. And you held onto it. The other one, you put all your clothes and everything in that black bag. And they said they carried up topside and threw it overboard. Then they sprayed us down with DDT. Made us stand there about twenty minutes. And then they would let us go through a shower. And that was the best thing that’s ever, to ever happen to you. Warm shower.
CA: Oh, me. And that was aboard a ship?
BG: Aboard ship.
CA: Um, my goodness, um.
BG: And then they ushered up to the chow hall and gave us a, I forget exactly what it was. They, it was some kind of warm soup or something and, and a cup of coffee.
CA: Hum.
BG: And that was the first warm, warm thing that we had had to eat for almost ninety days. And I was down to 117 pounds.
CA: How much did you weigh when you went in there?
BG: About 147, ―48, maybe 152, some, just depends. And that was after, right after that there―and then when we came through the shower this is what they issued us [Mr. Gober points to a photograph of himself in the clothes they issued him] and we put it on and we got a shave and a shower. And eventually, before we got back down to Masan, Masan here on this side right there, Masan, when we got aboard here we came all the way back here. And then we stayed there for R&R about three weeks. And then we had to come back over on this side and push the Chinese back to this DMZ zone here.
CA: Yeah, hum. So had they overrun the city of Seoul again?
BG: Oh yeah, they, that city passed hands, changed four times in six months. CA: Um.
BG: When they crossed the 38th here and captured the city of Seoul then we recaptured it. Then the Chinese recaptured it and then the Army recaptured it. In six months it changed hands four times. And see, we are for—, we are known as the “forgotten war”. Nobody knows much about it. And we go to the schools and talk to the schools. There's a group of us. And we're in the Graybeard this month. I'm in it; it shows, at a school, talking to the kids.
CA: Oh, yeah?
RH: How do the kids respond?
BG: Real good. They, they, the teachers are more surprised. They don't realize that the Korean War—see the causality list in that Korean War in three years is 54,000 deaths, 150 som—, 100 and something thousand wounded. There is still 8,142 missing.
CA: Hum. My goodness.
BG: And Laverne Tate's unit was on, on the right flank here, up here. There were 3500 of them and there was 370 of them survived. The rest of them is still over there.
CA: Um, goodness. How did y'all keep in ammunition while you were surrounded like that?
BG: Air dropping.
CA: Oh, okay. An air drop, then.
BG: They had to drop our Tootsie Rolls and everything.
CA: Yeah.
BG: And, and see, and they, they dropped those three-in-one rations. See, it, that's three-in-one, that means three meals in one package.
CA: Oh, okay.
BG: Breakfast, lunch and dinner.
CA: Um-hm.
BG: But everything froze but the crackers and the jam and stuff. See, in forty below zero, everything is froze.
CA: Um-hm.
BG: And you couldn't eat it. It was just hard as a brick. So, the only thing we could eat was the crackers, two crackers, and the jam and the fruit and the Tootsie Rolls. And a Hershey bar. That's what we lived on.
CA: I bet you got sick of all that didn't you?
BG: Well, it tasted pretty good, when you're hungry.